Friday, August 29, 2008

Friday Jams (Atlanta Road Trip Edition)

It's Friday... and I'm going to Atlanta to see Clemson play with Ben, Will, Bochet, and maybe RoBo this weekend. I made a mix CD for the drive. Lots of Ugly Duckling on it. Here's one of my favorite UD songs. It's called I Did It Like This. It is not on the new mix, but damn good nonetheless. Peep:

And here's Pharcyde and Jay Dee's She Said Remix:

Lastly, here's Big L's MVP:

weekendsrealbig... clemsonrealbig

Friday, August 22, 2008

Friday Jam(e)s Part 2

It's Friday, and I am extra hungover. I was hanging out with Josef during/after work at D'Allensandro's last night, and it inspired me to post more James Brown videos. Josef is all about Michael Jackson, and I'm trying to put him onto some real James shit. Here's James live on the Midnight Special in '74. Check the dance move into the drop split when The Payback hits after the intro. Hillarious. I thought he was gonna fall down, and he turned it into a dance.

And here's James on Sammy Davis, Jr.'s show. Check the Camel Walk. I'm tryin to learn that dance so I can be hilarious too.

weekendsrealbig

Thursday, August 21, 2008

My New Hobby... Watching old Soul Train videos

And that's real talk.

Back in the day, live Soul Train performances weren't lip synched. James and the JB's showcasing on stage live and direct shows how great the show once was. Especially after they kill the crowd in the breakdown between Soul Power and Make It Funky. I dig:

And even just the dancing footage to a DJ is supreme. Don Cornelius' interviews were always a little awkward, but his smoothness made up for any stiff interview subjects. Here's some kids getting down to the LP version of make it funky. Make sure to peep out the keyboard from 1:57 to 2:32. Grant and I used to always throw two fingers up high and mime the repeating notes for the whole lead back in the day. I still do, and I imagine he does the same whenever he hears this song.

Friday, August 15, 2008

Friday Jams (Jay-Z Edition)

BIG UPS TO BOCHET FOR PUTTING ME ON TO THIS!

Apparently, Jay-Z is releasing The Blueprint III sometime in the near future. On August 6th, Kanye was performing at Madison Square Garden on the Glow in the Dark tour. He brought Hov out to perform the first single off the album, "Jockin Jay-Z/Dope Boy Fresh" and announced that the song would be on the forthcoming Blueprint III (Carter trilogies real big in oh eight). The song is already getting lots of comparisons to A Milli. Peep the performance:

If you dig, and you want to hear the whole song, peep:

Direct link with lyrics here.

Weekends real big. Don't front.

Monday, August 11, 2008

New Job, Same Shit

I started working at D'Allesandro's Pizza this week. The food is good, the people I work with (those that I've met so far) are really nice, and the bosses are pretty laid back. So far, I really like it. I worked the lunch shift on Saturday and Sunday with Josef and David. Both of them are nice and helped me get the hang of things. I'm working there during the dinner shift on Wednesday if you want to come in and get a pizza tossed by a pro.

During both weekend shifts, we listened to a lot of Michael Jackson (Josef's favorite), so I'm going to make some James Brown and JB's mixes to bring in to listen to this coming weekend. I'll prolly include this on there:

I'm pretty busy this week between working both jobs and getting up with Hunter to cut. It's a welcome change since I've been taking it easy most of the summer and enjoying my free time. Hopefully I can get my paper stacks right and get a PA so Hunter and I can start doing more shows in the in the future. At least that's the goal.

Friday, August 8, 2008

Friday Jam(e)s

It's Friday. You know what that means. This week, I'm hitting you off with some of my favorite James Brown selections to peep. First up, James and the JB's doing "Ain't it Funky Now". The first solo is by guitarist Catfish Collins (Bootsy's brother), then Fred Wesley gets down on trombone, Bootsy rips a crazy bass solo, and James kills the organ in his signature style. I don't know if you know this or not, but when James says "s'morgin", he is essentially asking if you would mind if he played a little organ for your mind.

And here's one my favorites, "Papa Don't Take No Mess". Lot's of personal significance with this song; but mostly, I dig the horns building up and then peeling off that slick horn line every time James says "hit me". Peep:

Weekendsrealbig

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

A Forgotten Classic

Every once in a while, I get surprised by a song I love but have forgotten about for one reason or another. Such an occassion happened this weekend. While hanging out in the James Bond-inspired bar at Palmer's family's house in Myrtle Beach, I was perusing Mr. Stowe's iPod only to find Rock Steady by Aretha Franklin.

The break (you'll know it when you hear it) has always been one of my favorites, mostly because it already sounds like a DJ is cutting and looping the break to get that cool "Rock... Steady" synchopated break with those killer drums breathing through. At the inception of hip-hop, Grandmaster Flash used to loop that little 4 bar break forever to give the B-Boy's time to get wide opin and get busy.

Anyway, here's a live version of Aretha doing Rock Steady in 1971. The break happens 1:46 in. Peep:

Big ups to Palmer's dad for being the most unlikely source for break digging I've ever encountered.

Friday, August 1, 2008

Friday Jams for a Road Trip

It's Friday, which is usually the day I post songs to drive home from work to. This week, I'm going to Myrtle Beach with Palmer after work, so this week's installment is for road trippin. I made a new mix cd last night (all mp3's, no mixing or anything) called Wherever I Go, She Go for the drive. Bonus points for knowing what song the title came from. Anyway, there's lots of jams on the disc (it barely fits on a CDR at 79:20). Mostly Dilla productions, Ghostface jams, songs featuring Ne-Yo (Palmer's celebrity crush... I'll stick with Rihanna), a couple of Wayne songs, and some D'Angleo joints.

Us Placers by Child Rebel Soldier (Lupe, Kanye, and Pharrell) is on there:

The Good, The Bad, the Ugly by Consequence and Kanye is on there:

But I'm sure Palmer is most excited that Bust It Baby (Part 2) by Plies and Ne-Yo is on there:

Weekendsrealbig